So here's what's happening. We're very sorry to inform you that Astronomy.SG has ceased its operations for good in the way that we all know it. We don't know if Astronomy.SG's going to return, but it'll be inactive for a while to come. We're very sorry for this, but we've decided that it's the best course of action.

After a year and a half online, Astronomy.SG has evolved from a very simple initiative to a full-fledged website that ran on pure passion and voluntary effort. It served a community we loved helping. With the onset of the International Year of Astronomy 2009, the site grew and it became a source of information for the public.

We were doing great and the response was hugely positive. We were invited to give talks by random groups which stumbled upon our site. We had a Straits Times journalist approaching us for an article on Astronomy. And we were even quoted as an official source by a news website. It was wonderful doing things that we really loved.

But it wasn't easy to maintain the site. The work of updating the website required immense labour. We found ourselves caught in the loop of mindlessly feeding new updates and information into the website to keep it relevant, without any incentive. Much of the local astronomy efforts are voluntary. And that makes it an incredible community with the truly passionate ones around. But something like Astronomy.SG wasn't going to survive like that.

So, in the end, our decision to pull out from the site was largely based on our inability to continue serving the same cause. On a personal level, we've greater ventures to pursue in the meantime. Astronomy.SG has a been a wonderful journey for us, and we hope that every reader has enjoyed themselves as much as we did.

Thank you all and good bye!

Clear skies!
Derek & Rong'en

P.S. Yet, there is be one particular page that will be updated: http://astronomy.sg/olympiads. We strongly feel that participation in the Olympiads is a natural progression as the community's standard rises, and will therefore make an effort to encourage students to participate in the Olympiads. The least we can do is to provide a convenient site where all relevant information about the Olympiads is gathered for easy reference.

After years at the helm, Kwan Jin Peng has stepped down from from his position as Chairman of MPASTRO. Siu Yung has been appointed as the new Chairman, while Jin Peng will stay on as an advisor to the society.

AGASTRO has been a very active member of the astronomy community, having organised a wide range of activties throughout last year, and continues to do so this year. With a dedicated management, and helmed by Jin Peng, a veteran in astronomy outreach, we are certain that AGASTRO will increase the vibrancy of the local astronomy scene.

Looking back, we can see that Singapore's astronomy scene is not dull at all. Organised, coordinated, and/or supported by a wide range of individuals, groups and organisations, these events have served to popularise astronomy on top of the innate enjoyment and enrichment one gets from "doing" astronomy. Our tally of events for the whole year is as follows: 14 camps & overseas trips, 7 competitions, 25 talks, 86 star-gazings and 4 celestial events/others. The numbers are actually a rough gauge, as some events overlap two or more categories. For the sake of not over-counting we categorise each event according to its primary purpose. For example, all the 14 camps & overseas trips actually include star-gazing, but we have classified them as "camps & overseas trips". To sum up, there are a lot of activities indeed.

Numbers aside, we would like to recognise the following people and organisations for having organised all the events listed on http://astronomy.sg. They are in no particular order (okay actually there is - have fun guessing!). The list is, of course, non-exhaustive, and we hope we have not missed out too many groups and people. We know, too, of many unsung heroes who have worked tirelessly behind the scenes and behind their organisation's name. We would like to thank them for their efforts, without which, I dare say, many events would not have come about, much less envisioned at all.

We hope that http://astronomy.sg has enabled more people to know more about Singapore' astronomy scene, thus fulfilling its primary purpose. Not just looking forward, by seeing what new events there are, but also looking back, for http://astronomy.sg is also an archive of events.

And looking forward, we would like to call for astronomy enthusiasts to contribute to our website, be it in the form of articles, reviews or simply the sharing of news. Although http://astronomy.sg may have been conceived at the start of the International Year of Astronomy, the website will not end with the close of the IYA. We welcome you!

Our website was recently down for 10 days as we experienced several technical difficulties. On 18 Nov 2009, we suffered a denial-of-service attack on the server on which our website was hosted in, rendering it inaccessible. To deal with the problem, we migrated to another server with a different IP address. The process of recovery and transfer took longer than we expected, but after several days of troubleshooting, we are finally back online.

The attack was targeting the IP address of the server, and not our website in particular, so this shouldn't happen again in the near future. The downtime has affected the thousands of visitors reaching our website everyday, stemming from popularity of the Leonids Meteor Shower.

We sincerely apologise for the inconvenience and frustration caused, and thank you for visiting our website.

At Astronomy.SG, we seek to expand and venture into new areas to serve the Singapore Astronomy community better. To bring to you greater value for Astronomical products and services, we are proud to announce a new tie-up programme with local Astronomy vendor Astro Bargains.

Under this new partnership, we will bring your special promotions from Astro Bargains every month, announcing both on our website and our newsletter. So, no, we are not filling our website with ugly obstructive advertisements or sending you spam emails. We adhere to our conduct of providing content of the strictest quality control.

If you are looking to purchase any astronomical equipment, we will work with Astro Bargains to source for it and get it at the best price. Eventually, we hope to integrate their vast catalogue into our website to offer visitors a new online store to purchase astronomical equipment. With this, we will also be shutting down our very own little shop on our website, to avoid the overlapping of services.

We hope that this new development will enhance the experience of Astronomy for everyone.

Took me about a week to get it completed, but it's up for good now. Astronomy.SG is back -- better, cooler and more time-wasting than ever before.

If you're not wasting your time by playing with the top banner which actually moves with your cursor, you can also check out the new features.

There's a Photo Gallery that's growing, and will become an extensive gallery featuring photos from ALL Astronomy events. We seek your help to obtain the photos!

And then there's a new Store that actually sells things cheaply. How cool is that?

Of course, you would also notice little Twitter updates in the small box hanging from the top.

In the future, we will organise events. It won't be simply another star party of competition -- We hope to bring you cheap overseas expeditions and even international Olympiads.

And finally, I'm developing Astronomy.SG into a proper organisation/society/business/mafia/whatever, because I alone cannot support the whole website myself. I'm in the process of contacting organisations and businesses for partnerships, and have actually linked up with a good few already. Can't release more details about our super secretive non-existent plans yet.

Go poke around at the Astronomy.SG website right now and enjoy the new design. It’s pretty cool and neat, at least in my opinion.

One of the main reasons why I had a redesign was because the old design was not compatible with Internet Explorer 6, and over 40% of the visitors to the website still uses IE6! However, even with the new design, the website is STILL not compatible with IE6. For your own sake, IE6, UPDATE YOUR WEB BROWSER.

Compatibility!

This site is developed to run on Firefox 3.0 and Google Chrome only, with a resolution above 1024x768. Please use these two browsers for optimal experience. Internet Explorer 7 support is minimal, and Internet Explorer 6 support is non-existent.

Who are We?

Astronomy.SG is a not-for-profit initiative managed by a team of volunteers, with the objective of promoting Astronomy in Singapore through innovative means.

Disclaimer

While all information here is updated as accurately as possible, the authors will be not be held responsible for any misleading information. Please help us by contacting us.